Gallipoli

Today is a significant day for Australia and New Zealand. Anzac Day is named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, who served in the Gallipoli Campaign in the First World War (1914-1918). The bravery, dedication, mateship, and fortitude—in the face of the adversity of those who served on the Gallipoli Peninsula shaped the national identity of Australia.

Anzac day is a solemn day of national remembrance of those Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who sacrificially fought and died for their country, and others who have served in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

Lest we forget. Let us also take this day to remember the overwhelming, never-ending selfless love of God. Christ sacrificed himself on our behalf, though we don’t deserve it, paying the infinite and eternal penalty only he could pay (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because of his love for us, Jesus laid down his life, paying the penalty for our sins. (1 John 2:2) Jesus died in our place, for our transgressions, and he was raised again, he is alive today, and we can have a growing and living relationship with him. (1 John 1:12)

We need to decide what kind of Christian life we want to live and what we are willing to do to get it. There’s a kind of Christianity that basically says, “We have joined the religious club”. The focus of this kind of Christianity is just to tick the items in the list of rules, rituals, rites, or good works; it doesn’t demand too much of us because it doesn’t impinge profoundly on our inner life. It’s ‘Comfortable Christianity’—we want God to be involved in our lives, we want him to be committed to us, but we don’t want to go too far in our commitment to him.

But there’s another kind of Christianity that we can choose. It’s the “all-in” kind of Christianity. The kind that we see men and women of God in Scripture, living, the kind that we see some people we know living as well. This kind of Christian has come to a fork in the road in their lives—a time in their Christian life when they encountered God very deeply and sensed that God was saying to them, “I did not die for you so you could continue to live for yourself, just adding some Christian benefits to your life.”

No, as the apostle Paul puts it, “For to this end, Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord, both of the dead and of the living.” God doesn’t want to be a comfortable addition to your life. He wants to turn your life upside down! This is the reality of the Christian life God wants for you.

Those ANZAC soldiers were reflecting the way God loves. God wants you to respond to his love by loving him back in the same all-in way that he has loved you.